The 1% Rule vs. The 1:1 Ratio

Eric Marden — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 21:49:49 +0000

An emerging trend in the online world is that the gap between content creator and the content consumer is closing. Personal Computers come pre-installed with many content creation tools, and many more aimed at the Amateur to the Pro-Am content cretor abound. One only has to look at iLife, Apple’s Am/Pro-Am content creation suite (now complete with a webpage editor that sports RSS feeds).
Some have put forth a suggestion, that only 1% of the online world is creating content. This seems awfully low to me. I have always thought of it as The 1:1 Ratio, for every content creator in a community there is a consumer, that in turn is also a creator. Their numbers, stating that out of 100 people, 1 would create the content, 10 would interact with it (commenting on it, offering suggestions to improve it, etc.) while the other 89 users would simple view it.
Maybe I just travel in more creative circles, because anecdotally The 1:1 Ratio holds true for me. Their numbers come from YouTube’s upload vs download ratio, and obviously skew the results because of the size of the sample. I’m not doubting their findings, but it’s interesting to hear the same theory in different contexts.
Read the article, and decide for yourself. It’d be cool if you left a comment too, and let me know which rule holds more true for you, The 1% Rule, or The 1:1 Ratio.
digg story
originally published on dr.xnlb.com

State of Mind of The Arts » Apple

The 1% Rule vs. The 1:1 Ratio